Myanmar Adventures // Part 1
At the beginning of September Graham and I visited my mother in Myanmar (Burma) who has been working there for the BBC World Service Trust for the last year. We were SO excited to visit this amazing country as it has only been properly open to the west for a short period of time and neither of us have travelled much in that part of the world. We had no idea what to expect but were determined to see as much as possible in the two weeks we had there.
I must have taken thousands of photos (everywhere I looked there was something beautiful or interesting to capture) so it’s been a tough job trying to condense them down to fit into one (long) post. However I hope you get a little bit of a flavour of this beautiful, rich and vibrant country.
We started our trip in Yangon (the old capital) where we spent a few days exploring the city and learning more about the country. Yangon is colourful, full of cars, full of people and full of history. It was the end of the rainy season which meant there were regular short sharp bursts of torrential rain however the rest of the time it was very hot and humid! There are some amazing buildings in Yangon, a lot of them built during the British colonial era. Nearly all of them are still in use, however due to the humidity they have all succumbed to a green tinge of moss, mould and algae.
When it rains it pours!!!
Jasmine flowers that my mother bought to welcome us
Escalators up to Shwedagon Pagoda – It was actually quite a long way up so the escalators were very welcome!
LED Buddha – Shwedagon Pagoda
We then decided to take a little trip to Bago, just outside of Yangon, for the night where we stayed at the beautiful Han Thar Gardens owned and run by the wonderful Mimi. After a wonderful day and evening at Han Thar we then went off into Bago to explore the town.
Sandbags to help navigate the huge puddles
The Palace in Bago
The train back to Yangon
To see the rest of our trip around Myanmar take a look at part 2 here!